Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Fun Size: Liberal Adventures in Babysitting

Fun Size reminded me a little superficially of Adventures in Babysitting. Both were essentially teen movies that targeted a pre-teen audience (an ugly trend) partly by using a pre-teen character. The Elizabeth Shue vehicle had its share of vulgarity and wasn't really all that appropriate, but the vulgarity is much more incidental in AiB than in Fun Size. But hey, a lot happens in 25 years.

But making a movie for pre-teens that is overly sexualized, glamorizes teen sex, and has a giant rooster humping a car isn't the main point of this post.

I wanted to point out the little political advertisements to be seeded in the minds of young people. Please let me know if there is a similar movie that is as conservative-friendly as this is liberal-friendly.

1) Ruth Bader Ginsberg. One of the smart kids is so smart and sophisticated she thinks of dressing up for Halloween as Supreme Court Justice Ginsberg, as she is a "feminist icon."

2) E. O. Wilson. One of the smart, sophisticated kids thinks of being E.O. Wilson for Halloween. I don't think they explain other than that he's a famous sociobiologist. E.O. Wilson promotes evolutionary biology as the foundational understanding of our humanity and nature. He has an outlook that aside from its religious overtones and its sweeping grandeur, is much more aligned with liberalism. Is that what gets smart kids all excited about Wilson or is it his handy "butterfly net."

3) Katie Couric. One of the few times the frat boys aren't saying something vulgar, it's to compliment a woman by comparing her to Katie Couric. Katie Couric. Couric is pretty, but that's the journalist that comes ot mind for this frat boy? Katie Couric. 'Nuff said. (Any odds on a non-vulgar beauty nod to Megyn Kelly, Laura Ingraham, Michelle Malkin, S.E. Cupp, etc...)

4) "My moms." The smart, sophisticated boy is raised by a stereotypically liberal same-sex couple. He mentions his "moms" all the time. He's very close to his momzzz. He'd never lie to his moms. He always listens to his moms. He talks to his moms. He loves his moms. Moms. Moms. Moms. (Meanwhile, I hear that the "Glee" show has decided to change its name to "My Two Dads" since most of the original viewership has moved on anyway.)

5) Obama. Okay, we meet the "moms." In case we have any doubts where these ancient Greek-spouting green-conscious sophisticants are about, you'll see them handcrafting a big oversized jolly portrait of good-natured Obama. Gosh, liberals are so smart and sophisticated.

6) Raise your hand. Just to throw it out there, a boy asks a room full of girls if anyone wants to kiss him. One boy quickly raises his hand and quickly lowers it before he is noticed.

Is it desperation or overweening pride or both that have filmmakers so out of the liberal closet with their early proselytizing?

Now this all wouldn't be so bad if there was that other kind of movie. The fun movie for kids in which the following things occur. A smart kid wants to be Clarence Thomas or Thomas Sowell (Oh, that's right; there's that "scandal"--and why didn't the NAACP defend him?) because they are black intellectual icons or conservative icons or black conservative icons, and why wouldn't smart kids want to acknowledge them? How 'bout some obviously conservative parents who are also obviously smart and compassionate. (Oops, Hollywood folk know that there are no such people, because the liberal icons tell them so.) Maybe some conservative kids that rally around and protect bullied kids. Hey, Hollywood has also been about showing the way the world should be rather than the way it is, so the industry's total inability to perceive these things shouldn't hinder their ability to imagine. And Hollywood'll be finally showing 55% of Americans that they don't hate everything about them and can actually think outside their narrow narrative.